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In 2018, when Mike DeWine was Ohio’s attorney general, he began investigating an obscure corner of the health care industry. He believed that insurers were inflating prescription drug prices through management companies that operated as middlemen in the drug supply chain. There were concerns that these companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, were […]

The post Taxpayers were overcharged for patient meds. Then came the lawyers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

For many students, the excitement of deciding where to attend college is being met with concern over whether they’ll receive the financial aid they need. This year, FAFSA delays have left guidance counselors, students and administrators wondering whether financial aid offers will be received before deciding where to go for college. “If I fill out […]

The post FAFSA delays cause financial uncertainty among Missouri students appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Congressional staff were scrambling Wednesday to finalize sweeping legislation that would fund much of the federal government, but time was running short ahead of a Friday midnight deadline. Leaders of the House and Senate and the Biden administration announced Tuesday they’d reached consensus on the final six government funding bills for the fiscal […]

The post Congress struggles to finish work on spending bills as another Friday deadline nears appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Former President Donald Trump renewed his call to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to dismiss charges against him, asserting that presidents enjoy near-total immunity from criminal prosecution. In addition, as a deadline loomed for briefs in the case, 18 Republican-led states filed an amicus brief Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to reverse the lower […]

The post Trump, GOP-led states argue presidential immunity claim to Supreme Court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Thirty years ago, the weather on Annie Doerr’s family ranch felt reliable. Now that she’s taken over from her parents, it’s been anything but. In recent years, drought has made finding good pastureland for beef cattle to graze increasingly difficult. “I always pray for a normal year,” she said, “which I don’t really know what […]

The post Droughts, complicated by climate change, result in US beef herd hitting historic low appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wants to eliminate Missouri’s income tax, which provides two out of every three dollars in the state’s general revenue fund, and says budget cuts can pay for it. To help craft the plan, Ashcroft has enlisted some of the well-known conservative economists and low-tax advocates that advised then-Kansas Gov. Sam […]

The post Jay Ashcroft proposes slashing state budget to eliminate Missouri income tax appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Across the country, electric demand is growing and could explode if green goals like electrifying home heating, industry and transportation come to fruition. At the same time, many states, utilities and businesses have pledged to decarbonize, helping push older coal and gas power plants that have struggled to stay economically competitive into retirement. Yet in the queues run by the organizations […]

The post New scorecard rates nation’s grid managers on connecting renewables appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Worried about hospitals closing and higher costs for patients, state lawmakers are increasingly tangling with hospitals over potential health care mergers, in some cases derailing deals they think don’t serve the public interest. Financially strapped hospitals often look to merge with or be acquired by other systems. After a pandemic-era slowdown, health care mergers and […]

The post Facing public backlash, some health care companies are abandoning hospital deals appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last year approved two breakthrough gene therapies for sickle cell disease patients. Now a new federal program seeks to make these life-changing treatments available to patients with low incomes — and it could be a model to help states pay for other expensive therapies. The new sickle cell […]

The post New way for states to cover pricey gene therapies will start with sickle cell disease appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Kentucky state Rep. Mark Hart has been drinking fluoridated water his entire life. In 1954, five years before Hart was born, his home state mandated adding or adjusting levels of the mineral, which occurs naturally in water, in drinking water systems of populations larger than 3,000. But after hearing from a constituent a few years […]

The post Fluoride in public water has slashed tooth decay, but some states may end mandates appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical Monday of a lawsuit alleging the federal government colluded with social media companies to suppress the freedom of speech, with a majority of justices across the ideological spectrum raising issues with the case and its potential consequences. The Biden administration argued to the court there is no […]

The post Suit alleging suppression of free speech met with skepticism at U.S. Supreme Court appeared first on Missouri Independent.

With a swipe at the intraparty foes who have disrupted the state Senate for several years, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden on Monday dropped out of the Republican race for Secretary of State. Rowden, who as of January was sitting on the largest campaign fund in the field, said in a statement released via […]

The post Caleb Rowden drops out of GOP race for Missouri Secretary of State appeared first on Missouri Independent.

When nurses rallied outside Research Medical Center last week to kick off contract negotiations, the refrain rang familiar. “Hey HCA,” the nurses’ signs read. “Put patients over profits.” In an increasingly unionized health care industry, still recovering from the pandemic, nurses across the country demand that hospitals beef up staffing and improve working conditions. And, […]

The post Kansas City nurses kick off contract talks saying they’re prepared to strike appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday morning in a potentially landmark case involving the federal government’s efforts to encourage social media companies to remove misinformation from their platforms. The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana. It alleges the federal government colluded with social media companies such as […]

The post SCOTUS to hear case alleging federal government bullied social media into censoring content appeared first on Missouri Independent.

America’s media institutions have had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad start to 2024. The Messenger, a well-funded, high-profile news site, dissolved after less than a year. Big newspapers from the Los Angeles Times to the IndyStar saw major layoffs. And Sports Illustrated fell into licensing limbo while sites like BuzzFeed, Vice News, or Complex found themselves at best on life support. The over 500 media […]

The post Local news is too important for our democracy. We need a ‘Marshall Plan’ for public media appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A small Missouri city ordered to pay a heavy penalty for its attempt to “intimidate and silence” a critic dropped its appeal Thursday as deadlines approached for important legal filings. Edgar Springs, a town of 200 in southern Phelps County, must now pay Rebecca Varney $750, plus almost $80,000 in attorney fees, to satisfy a […]

The post Phelps County town drops appeal of $80,000 Missouri Sunshine Law judgment appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Christian King watched her sister lie sick in a hospital bed for days after suffering a placental abruption while giving birth. Finally, after their mother pleaded with hospital staff to run more tests, they learned her blood count was dangerously low. Two blood transfusions later, she was back on her feet.  The power of having […]

The post Missouri doulas give up wages to serve women on Medicaid. Legislators hope to fix that appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Jason Barton didn’t want to attend the Super Bowl parade this year. He told a co-worker the night before that he worried about a mass shooting. But it was Valentine’s Day, his wife is a Kansas City Chiefs superfan, and he couldn’t afford to take her to games since ticket prices soared after the team […]

The post They were injured at the Kansas City Super Bowl shooting. Now they feel forgotten appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Kansas City construction worker unions find many things to like about extending the 3/8-cent sales tax to build a new Royals stadium and maintain Arrowhead Stadium — such as new jobs. But service workers who would fill the jobs in and around a new ballpark in the Crossroads Arts District say they’re being left out. […]

The post Construction unions back the Royals stadium while low-wage workers demand more appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A state spending plan for fiscal 2025 delivered Thursday in the Missouri House cuts $2 billion from the proposal Gov. Mike Parson made in January, largely through adjustments for the depletion of pandemic-era federal funding and the decline in Medicaid enrollment.  The proposal from House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith achieves those cuts despite several […]

The post Missouri House budget chairman trims $2 billion from governor’s proposed spending plan appeared first on Missouri Independent.